Umm Ruweim

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The building Umm Ruweim 1, in the background the Wadi Abu Dom

Umm Ruweim describes an ensemble of three ruins in today's Sudan , which are located a little south of the 4th Nile Cataract on the edge of Wadi Abu Dom . The ruins consist of two larger and one smaller buildings. The two larger ones date to the late to post-Meroite period (approx. 300 AD).

The facility, known as Umm Ruweim 1 , is about 50 × 50 meters in size and has a total of four gates, one in the middle of each side. There are a number of rooms on the inside of the outer wall. Within this boundary there is a second, similar room complex, but only with a single, simple passage to the east. Finally, in the center there is a single building.

A second, simpler system is located to the south-east about 400 meters away and is called Umm Ruweim 2 . Today it only consists of a surrounding wall, but originally it had an interior structure consisting of a square wreath and a central building similar to Umm Ruweim 1 (not made of stone, but mud bricks).

A little south of Umm Ruweim 1 is another, much smaller stone building, Umm Ruweim 3 . However, it has not yet been clarified whether it also dates to the same time as the two large systems and is functionally related to them.

The function of these buildings is not certain. Both a military function and the role as a fortified well station ( Hydreuma ) or caravanserais were discussed, but have since been rejected. Most likely they are representative residential buildings that also contained rooms for storing supplies and for ritual purposes.

In the vicinity of the facilities there are small cemeteries, some of which have been excavated.

Angelika Lohwasser ( University of Münster ) has been documenting the ruins of Umm Ruweim since 2011 as part of a survey that has been ongoing in Wadi Abu Dom .

literature

  • HN Chittick: An Exploratory Journey in the Bayuda Region . In: Kush. No. 3, 1955 pp. 86-92, especially p. 88.
  • D. Eigner, T. Karberg: WADI 2011: The building survey by Umm Ruweim. In: Communications of the Sudan Archaeological Society in Berlin e. V. (MittSAG) Issue 22, 2011, pp. 69–84.
  • J. Helmbold-Doyé: The pottery from Umm Ruweim I. In: MittSAG- Heft 22, 2011, pp. 85–88.
  • Ossama el-Nur, Hassan Bandi: The Potential of the IVth Cataract Archaeological Project I: Mound-Graves at Umm Ruweim and Khor al-Greyn. In: Hommages à Jean Leclant. Volume 2: Nubie, Soudan, Ethiopie. Contributions réunies by Catherine Berger, Gisèle Clerc et Nicolas Grimal , (= Bibliothèque d'étude. Volume 106, No. 1–4). Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale, Le Caire 1994, ISBN 2-7247-0134-8 , pp. 323–331.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ D. Eigner, T. Karberg: WADI 2012 - The large buildings Umm Ruweim 2, Quweib and Umm Khafour in the lower Wadi Abu Dom . In: MittSAG Heft 23, 2012, pp. 47–60.
  2. ↑ D. Eigner, T. Karberg: WADI 2013 - The construction of the ruins of El Tuweina , pp. 57–58. In: MittSAG Heft 24, 2013, pp. 51–58

Web links

Coordinates: 18 ° 24 ′ 38 ″  N , 31 ° 59 ′ 25 ″  E